"A client sent me a cheque for £6,000. I lost it. I always intended to ask them to issue another but never got round to it."

August 30, 2012 9:18 AM

BBC readers procrastinate.
posted by Chrysostom (17 comments total)

Favorited for reading later.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:24 AM on August 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

Bah. The REAL procrastinators are the ones who never got around to sending their stories in.
posted by yoink at 9:25 AM on August 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

It took me 30 years to finish a crewel needlepoint hanging.
posted by Tullyogallaghan at 9:28 AM on August 30, 2012

It's astonishing how people waste their precious time doing nothing at all.

F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:30 AM on August 30, 2012 [6 favorites]

When I was asked to write a 2,000-word history essay for my architecture degree, I waited to the last week to act. I decided to set all my other tasks aside so I could wholly focus on the essay. I locked myself in my room, and yet for the first six days I only wrote 100 words each day.

I was an English major in undergrad prone to coming up with the oddest topics I could for term papers. I think I wrote every one of them -- the last one was a comparison of suburban planning theory ca. 1950, social hygiene films from around the same era, and Brave New World -- between the hours of midnight and 9 AM (the "didn't go to sleep yet" 9 AM, mind you) fueled by little more than red bull, cigarettes and the feeling of impending doom.
posted by griphus at 9:32 AM on August 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

I've been unemployed for a long time, and I find that the more time you have to complete a task, the longer it takes to get around to it.
posted by scratch at 9:34 AM on August 30, 2012 [6 favorites]

In a single sitting, I can get more nothing done than you can ever get done doing something.
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:34 AM on August 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Er, sorry, the hours of midnight and 9 AM in a 3-day radius around the due date. To this day, I am really, really lucky I participated enough in class to get that much slack cut for me.
posted by griphus at 9:35 AM on August 30, 2012

scratch: "I've been unemployed for a long time, and I find that the more time you have to complete a task, the longer it takes to get around to it."

AKA Parkinson's Law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

posted by Happy Dave at 9:42 AM on August 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bah. The REAL procrastinators are the ones who never got around to sending their stories in.

Those who procrastinate so intensely as to fail even to post about their procrastination on metafilter have attained a state of sloth that is almost holy.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:44 AM on August 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'll finish the article later, but it looks interesting.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:53 AM on August 30, 2012

First!
posted by neroli at 10:25 AM on August 30, 2012 [7 favorites]

The ending is the best:

I started up the Stirling University Procrastination Society in 1980. It was a resounding success. Not one person bothered to return their registration form on time and we never got round to holding any meetings. Well done us. Yay! JohnB, Berkshire

The article that preceded this one is mostly garden-variety handwringing about why we all procrastinate, but with some gratuitous modern-day updating of Hamlet mixed in:

Procrastination is the student's curse, as the student prince, Hamlet, knew only too well. What are university libraries for, if not for staring into space, gazing at sexy peers, logging on to iTunes and planning your evening's drinking?

The image of Hamlet rocking out on his earbuds to angsty music while flirting with Ophelia is odd indeed.
posted by beryllium at 10:30 AM on August 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Aw... now I want the kind of consulting job where a £6K pay cheque (almost $10K) is nothing more than a trifling embarrasment.
posted by rh at 11:51 AM on August 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

Boy, these are some real champions. These stories make my everyday procrastination look like small beer. (I just love that expression. Small beer, small beer...) I really need to print some documents out, but I'm on Metafilter right now: sorry, Lisa.
posted by kozad at 12:03 PM on August 30, 2012

One time I lived without a bathroom sink for over a year because my husband took it apart to ... I don't even remember why, actually. And kept meaning to put it back together. After a year I finally called the plumber. It took ten minutes.

We now have an agreement about how long I have to wait for him to get around to home repairs before I can call The Guy, and a very strict rule about not taking apart things that WORK FINE.

Meanwhile, I'm only a year behind on my kids' baby books!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:19 PM on August 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Procrastination was an infant until You Tube.

Or maybe it was Google.

Too late now anyhow.
posted by mule98J at 5:00 PM on August 30, 2012